Thursday, May 31, 2012

I am truly perplexed that so many people are against a mosque being built at Ground Zero. I think it should be the goal of every American to be tolerant. Thus the Mosque should be allowed, in an effort to promote tolerance.

That is why I also propose that two nightclubs be opened next door to the mosque, thereby promoting tolerance from within the mosque. We could call one of the clubs, "The Turban Cowboy", which would be gay, and the other a topless bar called "You Mecca Me Hot."

Next door should be a butcher shop that specializes in pork, and adjacent to that an open-pit barbecue pork restaurant, called "Iraq o' Ribs."

Across the street there could be a lingerie store called "Victoria Keeps Nothing Secret," with sexy mannequins in the window modeling the goods.

Next door to the lingerie shop, a liquor store called "Moorehammered."

All of this would encourage the Muslims to demonstrate the tolerance they demand of us, so the mosque problem would be solved.

If you agree with promoting tolerance, and you think this is a good plan, please pass it on … for the sake of tolerance.

(ABC) Mitt Romney arrived at the shuttered headquarters of Solyndra Inc. this morning, a surprise visit that was shrouded in secrecy and part of the presumptive GOP presidential candidate’s attack on President Obama’s record on jobs creation.

“Two years ago President Obama was here to tout this building and this business as a symbol of the success of his stimulus,” said Romney, stepping off a bus and onto the public sidewalk in front of the Solyndra buildings just outside Silicon Valley. “Well you can see that it’s a symbol of something very different today.”

“It’s a symbol not of success but of failure,” he said. “It’s also a symbol of a serious conflict of interest. An independent inspector general looked at this investment and concluded that the administration had steered money to friends and family – to campaign contributors. This building, this half a billion dollar taxpayer investment, represents a serious conflict of interest on the part of the president and his team.”

“It’s also a symbol of how the president thinks about free enterprise,” said Romney. “Free enterprise to the president means taking money from the taxpayers and giving it freely to his friends.”

“You look at this building behind us; this is not the kind of building that is built by private enterprise,” he said. “This is the kind of enterprise – the kind of building – that’s built with half a billion dollars of taxpayers money. It’s not just the Taj Mahal of corporate headquarters. you probably also heard that inside there are showers that have LCD displays that tell what the temperatures are of the shower water. and the robots inside actually provide Disney music tunes.”

Solyndra is the failed California-based solar technology company that received more than $500 million in federal stimulus money before it went bankrupt last year. It has since become a mantle of Romney’s argument that Obama doesn’t know how to run the economy.

(CNSNews.com) – The White House does not yet know whether President Barack Obama is for or against banning sex-selection abortions.

Asked on Wednesday about where the president stands on a bill proposed in the House that would ban abortions based on the gender of the unborn child, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said he would have to check.

ABUJA (Reuters) - A German man held hostage in northern Nigeria by a group linked to al Qaeda has been killed during an attempt by Nigerian forces to rescue him, a witness and security sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Edgar Fritz Raupach was kidnapped in the north's main city Kano in January. A group claiming to be al Qaeda's north African wing said in March it was holding him and demanded the release of a Muslim woman imprisoned in Germany in exchange for freeing him.

"I saw some corpse inside the military vehicle after the raid at Danbare Quarters close to the new site campus of Bayero University," Ibrahim Mohammed, a civil servant in Kano told Reuters by phone.

"It is not only the German that was inside the vehicle but that of the kidnappers too, the military blocked all entrance to the area during the raid."

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Armed Bedouin tribesmen have kidnapped two U.S. tourists in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to demand the release of a tribesman arrested in a drugs case, Egyptian police said on Thursday.

The American men, both 31, were seized while driving near the resort of Dahab.

"There are negotiations now between the security forces and the armed gunmen to release the tourists," a police source said, adding the Bedouin were seeking the release of one of their tribe who has been jailed in a drugs case.

"We can confirm that there were two U.S. citizens kidnapped May 30 on the Sinai Peninsula and we are working closely with the Egyptian authorities to resolve the situation," a U.S. embassy official said, without giving further details.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Two U.S. tourists were released unharmed by Bedouin kidnappers in the Sinai Peninsula on Thursday, security sources said, a day after they had been abducted by tribesmen seeking the release of one of their kinsmen held by the Egyptian authorities.
"The tourists are with Egyptian security now," a security source told Reuters. "They were released after successful negotiations with the army, with the mediation of Bedouin sheikhs."

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Six explosions hit Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens more, the most deadly attacks on the Iraqi capital in more than a month.

The blasts, including a truck bomb that exploded in a busy market area, broke weeks a relative quiet in Baghdad just as the country's fragile government shared among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs wrangles to end a political crisis that has threatened to reignite sectarian tensions.

In the largest blast, a bomber detonated a vegetable delivery truck packed with explosives near a restaurant in a market, killing at least nine people and wounding 27 more in the mainly Shi'ite Shula district in northeastern Baghdad.

"The pickup truck came into the market and the driver left it saying he was going to get people to unload the vegetables," said Haider Fadhil, one of the wounded. "It was a huge explosion, I was knocked out and woke up in a car on my way to hospital."

A car bomb exploded near the vehicle of one of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's advisers, killing one civilian and wounding three people in western Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. It was not clear whether the adviser was targeted.

Two roadside bombs exploded in Amiriya district, killing one person and wounding four more while roadside bombs injured 14 more people in three other mixed neighborhoods in western and southern parts of the capital.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

(Newsmax) Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan delivered a blistering rant against America and Israel in an address this Sunday in San Diego. The minister declared that Allah will bring down skyscrapers and “take out cities” if America and Israel take action to stop Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

“So, America . . . I tell you, you’re on your way to war and if you declare war on Iran at the behest of Israel and you bomb Iran and some of you are saying we should invoke Hiroshima again on Iran, meaning drop an atomic bomb on Muslims — I have even heard that they’re talking about even bombing Mecca . . .,” he said, according to The Blaze.

Farrakhan went on to say, “So I’m warning you, America, if you bomb Iran, I’m looking at San Diego, I’m looking at your beautiful cities — the God that I represent is going to take out some of your cities with earthquakes. You live in the city, I live in the city, but some of us are going to die, because we agree with them, agree with evil. So the God of judgement and justice, he’s going to kill a lot.”

Forces loyal to Assad killed at least 108 people and injured around 300, mostly women and children, on Friday in Houla in Homs province, according to the UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous. The event marks one of the biggest massacres of the 14-month uprising against his rule. Syrian authorities have denied carrying out the attack, instead blaming it on "terrorists."

Mehmanparast touted the UN-Arab League Annan plan to end the bloodshed in Syria, calling it the only way to settle the ongoing crisis, but blamed Israel for deliberately sabotaging the plan. "We palpably feel the Zionist regime's hand in Syria's internal developments," Mehmanparast said, adding that "The Zionist regime's backers aspire to the failure of Annan's plan."

WASHINGTON (Ynet) – US President Barack Obama met with a group of Conservative rabbis and Conservative Movement leaders on Tuesday in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

The wide-ranging discussion included a focus on Israel, Iran, and domestic concerns. The president and his chief of staff Jacob Lew spent an hour answering questions from Conservative leadership from across the country.

Are you ready for BS? Here goes:

During the meeting, Obama told the rabbis that when he was running for Senate some accused him of being the Jewish lobby's "puppet" because of his many Jewish associates in Chicago. Now, he said, the Republicans are trying to portray him as not being supportive of Israel by stressing the fact that his father was Muslim and he has a Muslim name, as well as by claiming that he had been overly aggressive in pushing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to promote the peace process with the Palestinians.

I fail to see how his participation in pro-Palestinian gatherings and fundrasings and his personal friendship with anti-Israeli Palestinian "activists" goes for "having Israel's best interest in mind" or makes him the Jewish lobby's "puppet".

The Executive-Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) Greater Area of Los Angeles Area chapter, Hussam Ayloush, has
been elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. CAIR
was labeled as an "unindicted co-conspirator" by the federal government
in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, a charity shut down for financing Hamas. On July 1, 2009, District Judge Jorge Solis upheld the label, ruling that the government provided "ample" evidence tying CAIR to Hamas.

On April 29, Ayloush announced on his Twitter page
that he was elected as a DNC delegate for California's Congressional
District 42. The California Democratic Party's website has the results of the delegate caucuses, confirming Ayloush's victory.

CAIR's roots are in the Muslim Brotherhood,
specifically its Palestine Committee that was secretly set up in the
U.S. to support Hamas. In 1993, the FBI wiretapped a Palestine Committee
meeting in Philadelphia that included two future founders of CAIR, Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad.
Also present was Shukri Abu Baker, the leader of the aforementioned
Hamas front called the Holy Land Foundation. At that time, Awad and
Ahmed led the Islamic Association for Palestine, another Muslim Brotherhood front (according to the Brotherhood's own documents) with extensive ties to Hamas.

The
participants in the 1993 meeting discussed how to "support jihad in
Palestine" when "this will be classified as terrorism according to
America." They discussed the use of deception and word games and the need to create a new organization with less baggage. Ahmed and Awad founded CAIR the next year. That same year, Awad stated that he supports Hamas. In 2004, he refused to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups in an interview with an Arab publication. The Justice Department reportedly blocked a planned prosecution of Ahmad in recent years.

It shouldn't be surprising then that one of the Brotherhood's documents from 2004 lists CAIR and the Islamic Association for Palestine, from which CAIR's leadership came, among its "working organizations." A 2007 court filing
is even clearer: "From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR
conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support
terrorists.the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the
American public their connections to terrorists."

Ayloush has been
the Executive Director of CAIR's Greater Area of Los Angeles chapter
since 1997. In December 2001, CAIR-CA's website published a photo
of him with Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, a senior Muslim Brotherhood
cleric that styles himself as the "Mufti of martyrdom operations" and
preaches in favor of Hamas, suicide bombings and the destruction of
Israel. Ayloush views him as an authoritative source. During a
discussion about zakat in October 2002, he referenced
the view of "many scholars," but only mentioned one: Qaradawi. To date,
there is no repudiation of Qaradawi on the CAIR-CA website or on
Ayloush's personal blog.

In 2010, Ayloush said,
"I cannot think of one Muslim scholar that I know of, that I have ever
heard of, who has actually condoned terrorism." Qaradawi's consistent
support for violent jihad is well-known to even his most passive
observers. Ayloush either is stunningly ignorant of the "scholar" he
references or agrees with Qaradawi's opinion of what qualifies as
terrorism.

In January 2004, he spoke of the "legitimate right of the Palestinians to defend themselves against the Israeli occupation" and in 2006, he described
the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers by Hamas and Hzbollah as a
"military operation." The Israeli response, on the other hand, he said
was "very reminiscent to the Nazi style of collective punishment.in
response to a resistance."

Ayloush consistently depicts the
actions taken by the U.S. government against Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood
entities as acts of oppression. He ridiculed
the government for freezing the assets of the Holy Land Foundation in
2001, saying, "As we see one charitable organization after the other
having its assets frozen and its offices closed, you know, the shift
from fighting terrorism is slowly happening towards a fight against
symbols of Islam or Islamic activism in the U.S."
He even said the
closing of these so-called "charities" is an act of genocide. On June
21, 2006, he spoke at a conference sponsored by various Brotherhood-tied
groups like CAIR, the Muslim American Society, the Muslim Students Association and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. He said,
"And any attempt to close down a legitimate relief organization is an
attempt to starve the Palestinian people.Any attempt to close down
relief for the Palestinians is an attempt at genocide."

Ayloush also defends some known extremists. He stands by the innocence of Sami al-Arian, a Brotherhood member convicted for being a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group. He has spoken at events
to raise money for his legal fees. In 2006, he spoke at a banquet for
Sami al-Arian, a convicted terrorist found to be a Brotherhood member
and leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the U.S. He also stood up for Sheikh Wagdy Ghoneim, an Egyptian Brotherhood cleric and vocalextremist, who was deported.

In a September 23, 2011, sermon titled, "The Best Jihad: Challenging Injustice," he said that the "Irvine 11," a group of students who so disrupted
a speech by the Israeli ambassador that it could barely progress, were
only charged because of three reasons: They are Muslim, Israel is a
"sacred cow' and because they defended Palestinians in Gaza. The goal is
to "intimidate" and "silence" criticism of Israel, Ayloush told the
mosque attendees.

This is a sharp sharp contrast to how CAIR treats
anti-Islamist Muslims like Dr. Zuhdi Jasser that dare to criticize them
and other Brotherhood derivatives. Ayloush has "re-tweeted" several
condemnations of Jasser and his appointment to a government post.

He
is a leading critic of the government's counter-terrorism efforts and
tells Muslims that they are part of a systematic persecution. In April
2009, he spoke at a mosque and said
that the FBI mustn't be allowed to have informants in mosques. "Our
youth, who they [the FBI] try to radicalize are off limits." He claims that the FBI hires informants to "instigate acts of violence to ruin the reputation of the Muslim community."

In May 2004, he said
that the U.S. had become the "new Saddam" and implored the country to
"end this hypocrisy, this hypocrisy that we are better than the other
dictator." In March 2008, he said
that in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, Somalia and
other Muslim countries, the U.S. is "supporting occupation, instability,
the interests of defense and war companies and the corrupt allies and
puppet regimes." He envisioned "an America that can defeat terrorists
without having to act like one."

To be fair, in 2006, he told a
columnist that he and CAIR rejected comments made by Imam Abdel
Malik-Ali in support of terrorism in Israel, saying
"The targeting of civilians is a crime that can never be justified, no
matter what just cause it claims to serve." And in a recent sermon, he warned Muslims against embracing false conspiracy theories.

His personal blog (which links to Nihad Awad's blog) has some concerning features.

On November 28, he reposted
an article entitled, "Those Who Support Democracy Must Welcome the Rise
of Political Islam." Political Islam is another term for the Islamist
ideology of the Brotherhood.

On June 23, 2007, he republished an article
arguing that Hamas is better than Fatah. Titled "West Chooses Fatah but
Palestinians Don't," it says, "Here in the U.S., Hamas is routinely
demonized, known primary for its attacks on civilians." It concedes that
both Hamas and Fatah have done "unspeakable" things but that the U.S.
should embrace Hamas. "Hamas did not run into Western opposition because
of its Islamic ideology but because of its opposition to (and
resistance to) the Israeli occupation. Ironically, it is Hamas that is
taking the stands that would be prerequisites for a true two-state peace
plan," the author writes.

Ayloush gave a speech on May 11, posted on his blog, titled "Don't Forget Palestine."
He tells the audience that Arab dictators like Bashar Assad and Israel
are "two sides of the same coin" and need each other. Assad justifies
his oppression in the name of fighting Israel and Israel justifies its
"oppression" in the name of defense against enemies like Assad.

Ayloush
accuses Israel of indiscriminately detaining innocent Palestinians for
months at a time, including children. Israel confiscates Palestinian
homes in order to build settlements and maintains the only Apartheid
state in the world, he says. He preaches that there is an "Islamophobia"
network in the U.S. that spreads "anti-Muslim" sentiment and promotes
conflict with the Muslim world and "nine out of ten" are right-wing
supporters of Israel. The goal, Ayloush assets, is to "demonize the
Palestinians" and "anyone who dares to speak up for the rights of the
Palestinians in order to cover up the crimes committed by Israel."

In another blog post,
he links to a statement by has-been Hollywood star Roseanne Barr
denouncing Israel as a "Nazi state." In the comments underneath the
post, he said his purpose was to highlight Jews "willing to take a
principled stand in criticizing Israel's racism and savagery." An e-mail
from Ayloush in 2002 shows why he favors her comments. He wrote,
"Indeed, the zionazis are a bunch of nice people; just like their nazi
brethren! It is just that the world keeps making up lies about them! It
is so unfair."

According to Americans Against Hate,
he also posted a picture of an Israeli fighter jet with the words,
"guilty Israeli terrorists" and has put up photos of a dead Palestinian
baby wrapped in the flag of Hamas. Despite all of this, Ayloush is able
to style himself as an interfaith leader. On March 20, he tweeted that
he's going to speak about Islam during a Sunday morning church service.

If
the Democratic Party wants to rebut allegations that the administration
is a poor friend of Israel, having a delegate that complains about
"ZioNazis" and is a CAIR official, a group tied to the Muslim
Brotherhood and Hamas, is going to be a tad bit of a problem.

(The Hill) The Commerce Department is considering naming Arab Americans a socially and economically disadvantaged minority group that is eligible for special business assistance.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) petitioned Commerce earlier this year to ask that Arab Americans be made eligible for the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), which helps minority entrepreneurs gain access to capital, contracts and trade opportunities.

The ADC petition cited “discrimination and prejudice in American society[,] resulting in conditions under which Arab-American individuals have been unable to compete in a business world.” The group claimed discrimination against Arab Americans increased after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

WASHINGTON (AP) — People of Arab descent living in the United States tend to be better educated and wealthier than other Americans, the Census Bureau says. [...]

Arabs are nearly twice as likely as the typical U.S. resident to possess a college degree — 41 percent to 24 percent. Better education typically translates into higher income, and that was highlighted in the report: The median income for an Arab family was $52,300, about $2,300 more than the median income for all U.S. families.

The proportion of U.S. Arabs working in management jobs was higher than the U.S. average, 42 percent to 34 percent.

Since the data stops at 2000, it was not possible to measure the impact of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Helen Samhan, executive director of the Arab American Institute Foundation, lauded the bureau for a report that shows “how integrated Arabs are in American life. It is a community that is well-rooted and well-invested in the United States.”

This is supposed to be the smartest President ever, practically a genius. Or so we're told.

(AP) The White House said President Barack Obama misspoke on Tuesday when he referred to a "Polish death camp" while honoring a Polish war hero.

The president's remark had drawn immediate complaints from Poles who said Obama should have called it a "German death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland," to distinguish the perpetrators from the location. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called it a matter of "ignorance and incompetence."

Obama made the comment while awarding the Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a resistance fighter against the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II. Karski died in 2000.

During an East Room ceremony honoring 13 Medal of Freedom recipients, Obama said that Karski "served as a courier for the Polish resistance during the darkest days of World War II. Before one trip across enemy lines, resistance fighters told him that Jews were being murdered on a massive scale and smuggled him into the Warsaw Ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself. Jan took that information to President Franklin Roosevelt, giving one of the first accounts of the Holocaust and imploring to the world to take action."

Sikorski tweeted that the White House would apologize for "this outrageous error" and that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk would address the matter on Wednesday.

"It's a pity that such a dignified ceremony was overshadowed by ignorance and incompetence."

Alex Storozynski, president of the Kosciuszko Foundation, said Obama's comment "shocked the Poles present at the White House and those watching on C-SPAN. ... Karski would have cringed if he heard this."

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The head of U.N. observers in Syria, Major-General Robert Mood, said on Wednesday 13 bodies had been discovered in the east of the country, with their hands tied behind their backs and signs that some had been shot in the head from close range.

"General Mood is deeply disturbed by this appalling and inexcusable act," a statement issued by the observer mission said. "He calls on all parties to exercise restraint and end the cycle of violence for the sake of Syria and the Syrian people."

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden over alleged sex crimes, leaving the Australian with few legal options after an 18-month legal battle.

Judges at Britain's highest court rejected by a majority of 5-2 Assange's argument that a European arrest warrant for his extradition was invalid.

However, the court gave his lawyers two weeks to contest their ruling, and any extradition has been put on hold until Assange decides whether to challenge the judges' decision.

Two lower courts had already ruled in favor of the extradition of Assange, a self-styled anti-secrecy campaigner seen as a menace by Washington and other governments.

Swedish prosecutors want to question Assange over allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two female former WikiLeaks volunteers. He has been fighting a legal battle against extradition since his arrest in Britain in December 2010.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Assad may have a second career at the UN after he completes his cleansing of Syria.

(The Guardian) With a line-up that includes Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, and Ricky Martin, the UN's choice of ambassadors has been known to cause raised eyebrows or the odd smirk.

Seldom, however, has there been such anger, or questioning of the organisation's credibility, as that greeting the appointment of a new international envoy for tourism: Robert Mugabe.

Improbable as it seems, the Zimbabwean president, who is widely accused of ethnic cleansing, rigging elections, terrorising opposition, controlling media and presiding over a collapsed economy, has been endorsed as a champion of efforts to boost global holidaymaking.

Despite that fact Mugabe, 88, is under a travel ban, he has been honoured as a "leader for tourism" by the UN's World Tourism Organisation, along with his political ally, Zambian president Michael Sata, 75. The pair signed an agreement with UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai at their shared border at Victoria Falls on Tuesday.

TOPEKA, KS May 29, 2012: On Monday May 21, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed into law American Laws for American Courts legislation (SB79) to protect the fundamental constitutional rights of Kansans. The legislation was approved earlier this month by an overwhelmingly bipartisan 33-3 vote in the Kansas Senate following unanimous 120-0 passage in the Kansas House of Representatives.

“This bill should provide protection for Kansas citizens from the application of foreign laws,” Stephen Gele, attorney spokesman for APPA told the Associated Press. “The bill does not read, in any way, to be discriminatory against any religion. It is perfectly constitutional.”

The passage of American Laws for American Courts legislation in Kansas is the latest vindication of a long-term national trend supporting constitutional protections for ALL Americans – especially women and children who would be most adversely affected—against foreign laws and foreign legal doctrines which have found their way into our court systems.

As previously mentioned, ALAC passed with broad bipartisan support in Kansas, just as it did previously in Tennessee, Louisiana and Arizona. In fact, versions of ALAC have been in force in Tennessee and Louisiana since 2010 and have never been challenged in court.

ALAC’s passage in Kansas comes despite well-funded efforts opposing the bill by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American Islamic Relations, as well as a $3 million national pro-Shariah campaign by the Muslim Brotherhood-tied Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).

CAIR in particular has spread disinformation on the Kansas law, declaring it is discriminatory against Muslims. But a reading of the actual bill as passed into law clearly shows that this is not the case. The Kansas American Laws for American Courts law is oriented toward protecting the fundamental constitutional rights of all Kansans, and will be especially useful in protecting the rights of Muslim-Americans who have come to America to escape the barbaric and totalitarian legal systems extant in nations such as Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt.

While some observers have mistakenly assumed that foreign legal systems based on Shariah never appear in US court cases, the Center for Security Policy conducted research refuting that claim, publishing a report highlighting 50 such cases in US state courts.

(JPost) Egyptian presidential candidate Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood vowed on Tuesday that should he be elected, he would respect a woman's right to "work in all areas, and to choose the way they dress," AFP reported.

There will be "no imposition on women to wear the veil" should he win, Mursi told a press conference.

(The Blaze) The Middle East Media Research Institute is publicizing video of thousands of Tunisian Salafis (hardline Islamists) rallying beneath the flag of al-Qaeda and shouting in unison, “Obama! Obama! We are all Osama!”

“Let us all cry ‘Allah Akbar’ together!” a speaker cries to the roaring crowd, “so that Obama the ape can hear us! All together now!”

As the crowd obliges, the speaker adds, “So that America can hear us!“ before everyone begins to chant ”We are coming! We are coming!”

(RT) A radio host has been hospitalized after being cut 15 times by an unidentified criminal. Two weeks ago the journalist ventured to criticize the founder of Islam, the Prophet Mohammed, on air.

­Sergey Aslanyan, 46, was brought to Moscow’s hospital with numerous non-penetrating knife wounds to the chest, neck and arm.

According to the police report, on late Monday evening an unknown man called to Aslanyan’s flat over the building intercom and called him outside for a talk. When the journalist stepped out of the entranceway he was knocked over the head with a heavy object, after which the assailant brought the knife into play.

Aslanyan claimed that the attacker was shouting “you are Allah's enemy!” while slashing at the victim.

Police say the abuser was a slim man of about 30, while according to some witnesses there were several attackers.

As of now the journalist is conscious and his condition is stable. His relatives and friends are free to visit him in his flat, which is guarded by police. Investigators say they do not have a primary lead, but hope to identify the perpetrator using porch surveillance camera data.

Still, Izvestia newspaper made a guess that the attack could be linked to recent statements made by the journalist in a radio show. While discussing religion in general he made some “from zero to hero” remarks towards the Prophet Mohammed.

“The Prophet Mohammed, as we know, was not a religious figure. He was a businessman, but after getting considerable financial support built plans as to how to get to the top,” Aslanyan disclosed. He also said that the Prophet “rewrote the Bible” so that “now everyone would know the Prophet Mohammed was not a market shopkeeper, but an outstanding political figure.”

According to Aslanyan, the idea of Islam was a “business project from the very beginning,” and turned out to be successful due to “handsome financing.” Besides that, the journalist, who was an external expert at this radio show, speculated that the Prophet had some sort of sexual disorder.

Reportedly, the journalist later apologized on air for the harsh statements he had made, but that did not change public opinion much.

Such statements could not but stir the Muslim community. There was a widespread angry reaction on the Islamic internet forums.

Muslims from the Republic of Tatarstan, where Islam is the dominant religion, wrote a letter to the Prosecutor General’s office saying Aslanyan’s statements had insulted them.

Despite being disappointed with the journalist’s position, representatives of the Muslim clergy of Tatarstan refused to have anything to do with the assault on the journalist.

“Islam does not recognize the resort to force – for this there are authorities and courts,” the spokesperson of the Clerical Administration of the Republic of Tatarstan told Izvestia.

The radio host’s colleagues say Sergey Aslanyan was always extremely cautious about what he was saying and, despite being a well-known agitator, had never got into trouble and had even won several cases against him in court – only because of his close attention to the facts he was voicing.

MOSCOW — A Russian computer firm has discovered a new computer virus with unprecedented destructive potential that chiefly targets Iran and could be used as a "cyberweapon" by the West and Israel.

Kaspersky Lab, one of the world's biggest producers of anti-virus software, said its experts discovered the virus -- known as Flame -- during an investigation prompted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Iran appears to have been the main target of the attack and the announcement comes just a month after the Islamic Republic said it halted the spread of a data-deleting virus targeting computer servers in its oil sector. [...]

Flame is "actively being used as a cyberweapon attacking entities in several countries," Kaspersky said in a statement late on Monday. Flame is "one of the most advanced and complete attack-toolkits ever discovered."

"The complexity and functionality of the newly discovered malicious programme exceed those of all other cyber menaces known to date," it added.

Monday, May 28, 2012

NAIROBI (Reuters) - An explosion tore through a shopping complex in Nairobi's business district during Monday's lunch hour, wounding more than 30 people, and police said they were investigating whether it was a bomb attack.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said anti-terrorism police were combing the blast site in the city centre for clues, appearing to row back on an earlier suggestion by the police commissioner that a massive electrical fault might be to blame.

More than ten people have been killed in a string of attacks in Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa since Kenya sent troops into Somalia in October to fight al Qaeda-linked militants.

Defaced posters with Arabic reading "Egypt is for all, President Ahmed Shafiq" and pictures of presidential runoff candidate Ahmed Shafiq are seen near his ransacked campaign headquarters in Cairo, Egypt Tuesday, May 29, 2012. A mob set fire late Monday to Shafiq's campaign headquarters, the first sign of unrest after the voting yielded divisive candidates. The attack on Shafiq's office came just hours after the country's election commission announced that he would face the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, Mohammed Morsi, in a June 16-17 runoff. (AP Photo)

CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA (Reuters) - Demonstrators furious that Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister made it into the run-off for the country's presidential election set ablaze his campaign headquarters on Monday, underscoring the divisive outcome of the nation's historic vote.

The campaign offices of Ahmed Shafiq, viewed as a symbol of Mubarak's rule, were set on fire after a group of protesters broke into and vandalized the premises, the state news agency reported. An official in the fire service confirmed the blaze had been extinguished without causing any casualties.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

(London) Radical Islamic hate preacher Abu "I really hate non-Muslims but am fighting tooth and hook in which to remain living amongst them" Hamza is currentlyva guest of Her Majesty the Queen inside Belmarsh prison for preaching hatred towards the entire non-Islamic population of the world. While banged up, the Americans hit him with an extradition order in which to have him face charges of being a hatemonger over there. Unfortunately for Hamza, his appeal to the EU court of human rights found in favour of kicking his arse out of the UK.

While Hamza has been promoting the victim line to anybody who will listen, he and his own have continued on the path of criminality which is ingrained in the DNA of Muslims the world over. Which is why his sons were jailed in 1999 for terrorism in the Yemen, his sons were jailed over a £1 million car scam the other year, while another of his sons was jailed for attacking the police. Another was spared jail for burglary.

All of the above substantiates the view that criminality is written into the codex of the Koran and is the reason why Hamza's daughter-in-law was jailed for 12 months last Friday.

It transpires that during a visit to Belmarsh prison in 2010, 26-year-old Chaymae Smak thought it would be a good idea to hide a mobile phone sim card under her burka in which to allow Hamza to continue to spread his evil while behind bars. Unfortunately for Allah's finest, she thought wrong when she presumed nobody would search her. But they did, and that is the reason why she was sent down.

In typical Islamic fashion, she played the victim card, appealing her sentence at the Appeals Court on Wednesday, May 23, claiming she should be released for the sake of her 10-month-old son with whom she was pregnant at the time of the prison visit.

But the judges were having none of it, and another of the Hamza clan finds out what life is all about behind bars.

Madeline Grace Wallace, 4, carries flags at the National Cemetery in Little Rock, Ark. , Friday, May 25, 2012. The girl and her mother visited the cemetery to place flags on graves for Memorial Day. (AP Photo)

Madeline Grace Wallace, 4, daughter of U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Wendy Wallace, picks up flags to take to her mother to place on graves for Memorial Day at National Cemetery in Little Rock, Ark. , Friday, May 25, 2012. (AP Photo)

U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Wendy Wallace and her daughter Madeline Grace, 4, place flags at National Cemetery in Little Rock, Ark. , Friday, May 25, 2012. (AP Photo)

Madeline Grace Wallace, 4, places a flag on a grave at National Cemetery in Little Rock, Ark. , Friday, May 25, 2012. The girl and her mother visited the cemetery to place flags for Memorial Day. (AP Photo)

Saturday, May 26, 2012

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — An American drone fired two missiles at a bakery in northwest Pakistan Saturday, killing four suspected militants, officials said, as the U.S. pushed ahead with its drone campaign despite Pakistani demands to stop. This was the third such strike in the country in less than a week.

The officials said the victims were buying goods from a bakery when the missiles hit. Residents were still removing the debris, officials said. All of the dead were foreigners, but the officials did not have any information on their identities or nationalities.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has significantly stepped up its output of low-enriched uranium and total production in the last five years would be enough for at least five nuclear weapons if refined much further, a U.S. security institute said.

The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a think-tank which tracks Iran's nuclear program closely, based the analysis on data in the latest report by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which was issued on Friday.

Progress in Iran's nuclear activities is closely watched by the West and Israel as it could determine how long it could take Tehran to build atomic bombs, if it decided to do so. Iran denies any plan to and says its aims are entirely peaceful.

During talks in Baghdad this week, six world powers failed to convince Iran to scale back its uranium enrichment program. They will meet again in Moscow next month to try to defuse a decade-old standoff that has raised fears of a new war in the Middle East that could disrupt oil supplies.

Friday's report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Vienna-based U.N. body, showed Iran was pressing ahead with its uranium enrichment work in defiance of U.N. resolutions calling on it to suspend the activity.

It said Iran had produced almost 6.2 tons of uranium enriched to a level of 3.5 percent since it began the work in 2007 - some of which has subsequently been further processed into higher-grade material.

This is nearly 750 kg more than in the previous IAEA report issued in February, and ISIS said Iran's monthly production had risen by roughly a third.

"This total amount of 3.5 percent low enriched uranium hexafluoride, if further enriched to weapon grade, is enough to make over five nuclear weapons," ISIS said in its analysis.

An economics professor said he had never failed a single student, but had once failed an entire class.

The class (students) insisted that socialism worked since no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.”

“All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A,” said the professor.

After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who had studied hard were upset while the students who had studied very little were happy.

But, as the second test rolled around, the students who had studied little studied even less and the ones who had studied hard decided that since they couldn’t make an A, they also studied less. The second Test average was a D.

No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average grade was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling, all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for anyone else.

To their great surprise they all failed.

The professor told them that socialism, too, would ultimately fail because of the same basic human principles of incentive.

The harder people try to succeed the greater their reward (capitalism), but when a government takes all the reward away (socialism) no one will try or succeed.

This image made from amateur video released by Shaam News Network and accessed Saturday, May 26, 2012 purports to show covered bodies after a government assault on Houla, Syria. Government troops shelled a string of villages in central Syria before pro-regime thugs swept through the area, shooting people in the streets and in their homes in attacks that killed more than 90 people, activists said Saturday. The assault on Houla, an area northwest of the central city of Homs, is one of the bloodiest single events in Syria's 15-month-old uprising. (AP Photo)

Remember Kofi Anan's upbeat report that Syria was moving in the right direction? That must be it.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Saturday that more than 92 people were killed in what activists described as an artillery barrage by government forces in the worst violence since the start of a U.N. peace plan to slow the flow of blood in Syria's uprising.

The bloodied bodies of children, some with their skulls split open, were shown in footage posted to YouTube purporting to show the victims of the shelling in the central town of Houla on Friday. The sound of wailing filled the room.

The carnage underlined just how far Syria is from any negotiated path out of the 14-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

"This morning U.N. military and civilian observers went to Houla and counted more than 32 children under the age of 10 and over 60 adults killed," the head of U.N. team monitoring the ceasefire - which has yet to take hold - said.

"The observers confirmed from examination of ordinances the use of artillery tank shells," Major General Robert Mood said in a statement, without elaborating. "Whoever started, whoever responded and whoever carried out this deplorable act of violence should be held responsible."

In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded "the Government of Syria immediately cease the use of heavy weapons in population centers".

Activists said Assad's forces shelled the town of Houla on Friday evening after security forces killed a protester and following skirmishes between troops and fighters from the Sunni Muslim-led insurgency fighting Syria's rulers, who belong to the minority Alawite sect.

(Tehran) A number of fatal attacks on scientists inside Iran got the left looking towards Israel as the mastermind behind them. Iran, as per usual, used the opportunity to cry 'Havoc' and issue death threats.

However, Arab news network Al-Arabiya has revealed how the government behind the killings in Iran wasn't the Israelis, neither was it the Americans or even the British. In fact, according to Al-Arabiya, the people behind the killings were none other than the mad mullahs in Iran. I quote:

Iran used Fashi as a scapegoat to please local public opinion. The opposition sources said they even doubted that Fashi was really executed, noting that the footage of his execution aired on public television was short and blurred.

The sources speculated that Iranian intelligence assassinated Mohammadi, the nuclear scientist allegedly killed by Fashi, because it had discovered that he intended to defect to the West.

Al-Arabiya said that the Israeli passport attributed to Fashi by Iran was so badly forged it “was not becoming of a country capable of building nuclear facilities.”

The channel reported that certain characteristics of the passport indicate that it was issued in the 1990s, not in 2003 as printed on it. Other obvious faults in the travel document include a misplaced passport number and a photo which displays the face tilted to the side rather than directly facing the camera.

“The Mossad would not place an illegal photo on a passport given to an agent in order to travel in Europe and elsewhere, as airport authorities would easily suspect it,” the report claimed.

Emanuele Ottolenghi of Commentary magazine also noted that Fashi is looking away from the camera in the alleged passport and that he appears to be an adult. If the 2003 date was accurate, Fashi would have been 15.

To further support the above, UK blog site 'Harry's Place' has exposed that the so called Israeli passport, belonging to the man the Iranians claim they found guilty of Masoud Ali Mohammadi's death, is actually an exact copy of a picture found on Wikipedia's page about Israeli passports(other than the passport photo):

Funny enough, the exact same operating procedures were used by Iranian hitmen in the Far East in which to target Israeli diplomatic staff, as used against scientists inside Iran. Coincidence?

Friday, May 25, 2012

Washington is desperate to stop Israel carrying out an attack before November – an event that would drag the US into war and also destabilise President Barack Obama’s chances of re-election. “As a result, Jalili could come to the talks retaining his maximalist bargaining position that Iran will give away nothing unless sanctions are reversed,” said a diplomat.

The Iranians are counting on the West, not just Obama, to view Iranian nukes as a better option than a military action to stop them.

The crazed mullahs want a bomb no matter what sanctions are enacted. They were just caught lying, again.

27% enrichment has no other purpose than as a step to weaponization.

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Iran increased its output of enriched uranium that world powers are concerned may eventually be used for a nuclear weapon, according to International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.

Iran almost doubled its stockpile of 20 percent-enriched uranium, to 145 kilograms (320 pounds), from 73.7 kilograms in February, the IAEA said today in a restricted 11-page report seen by Bloomberg News. Iran had tripled its production of the material in the three months to Feb. 24.

IAEA inspectors reported they'd found "the presence of particles" of 27 percent-enriched uranium at Iran's Fordo facility. The particles were a result of "technical reasons beyond the operator's control," Iran told the Vienna-based agency, which is looking into the matter. Uranium enriched over 20 percent is technically highly-enriched, though most nuclear bombs use the heavy metal purified to 90 percent levels.

SANAA (Reuters) - Two al Qaeda-linked suicide bombers targeting Shi'ite Muslims blew themselves up at a school and a protest march in northern Yemen on Friday killing at least 12 people, the defence ministry said.

The attacks came less than a week after a suicide bomber in army uniform detonated an explosive belt at a military parade rehearsal in Sanaa, killing more than 90 soldiers and wounding at least 200 more.

(JPost) Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called Israel's construction of a wall along its northern border a potent testament to the victory of armed "resistance groups," according to Lebanon Now.

Speaking on the anniversary of Lebanese Liberation Day, which commemorates the IDF's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000,
Nasrallah said: "Liberation day ended the project called ‘Greater Israel,’" according to Lebanon Now.

"The project of Greater Israel always aimed for big territory bordered by rivers," he said. "These walls built by Israel along the
border with Palestine and Lebanon show that the project of Greater Israel is over. The project of having rivers as borders ended with
having walls for borders."

BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 50 people, including 13 children, were killed when Syrian forces attacked the town of Houla in Homs province on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activists said.

Activists said clashes erupted in the town when Syrian forces opened fire on a protest against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad and killed one protester.

"The soldiers are shelling Houla right now, the casualties are huge," said activist Ahmad Kassem. He said opposition fighters fired back, inflicting casualties on the soldiers and destroying five tanks.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen’s military launched an attack Thursday on an al-Qaida hideout in the country’s south as part of a wider offensive, killing 35 militants, the Defense Ministry said.

The attack came four days after al-Qaida claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on a military parade rehearsal in the capital, Sanaa. The bombing killed 96 Yemeni soldiers. Funerals for 67 of the soldiers were held on Thursday.

The Defense Ministry said that in its attack, the Yemeni military took control of Wadi Banaa Arab, near the town of Jaar, another al-Qaida stronghold.

MADRID, MAY 24 (ANSAmed) - Granada, Valencia, Seville and Cordoba are the next targets of the Salafite Ansar Al Din group, linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, according to security sources quoted today by Radio Cadena Ser.

In an statement circulated inside the organisation which was reportedly intercepted, the four cities in the south of Spain, which "were ruled by Muslims," are mentioned by Ansar Al Din as places that must be freed and in which the ancient Muslim empire, "Al-Andalus, must be brought back to life." The sources consider the threat real and specify that Spain continues to be one of the main targets of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). After the fall of Gaddafi, this organisation reportedly managed to take possession of large numbers of Libyan weapons and increased its power in Mali and Timbuktu.

(Emirates 24/7) Fifteen people were killed or injured in tribal fighting in Yemen after a male donkey chased an ass and raped it just near the house of its owner.

Newspapers in Yemen said the owner of the ass got mad after he saw the donkey attacking his animal, prompting him to chase the donkey and hit it.

The attack infuriated the donkey owner, who called his armed tribe men and asked them to take revenge.

“The problem snowballed into an armed fight between Makabis tribe, which owns the donkey, and Bani Abbas which owns the ass…15 people were either killed or injured in the battle,” the Saudi Arabic language daily Aleqtisadiah said, quoting newspapers in Yemen.

A large police force intervened and stopped the fighting at a village in the southwestern province of Abb, newspapers said, adding that police had arrested eight persons involved in the conflict.

Also in the news: Monkey attacks prayers in Saudi mosque.

A packed Saudi mosque plunged into pandemonium after a mon[k]ey found its way inside and attacked worshippers just as they were about to kneel down for their daily prayers, a newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom said on Sunday.

Hundreds of people have converged on the mosque in the western town of Taif for their evening prayers and lined up behind the preacher when the monkey jumped into the lines and attacked them.

"They stopped their prayers to chase the monkey…after a few minutes, they failed to catch it and the monkey succeeded in fleeing outside the mosque,” Sabq daily said without mentioning where the monkey had come from.

(London) In the film "Bulletproof Monk", the head Nazi mentions to his Nazi granddaughter than hiding within a human-rights organization was a bold move. An act of fiction?

Yesterday, the human right org Amnesty International opined to the world that the raid which resulted in the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden was illegal. They also mentioned that questions they have asked the US over the killing of terrorists Anwar al-Awlaqi, his al-Qaeda co-conspirator Samir Khan and a couple of other blood thirsty idiots have gone unanswered.

You know what? I'm all for human rights and such, yet, and a big yet, why do the left spend more time and effort defending those who not only stick two fingers up to human rights but have more blood on their hands than those they actually chase? Which is why the tofu eating terrorist apologists at AI have this to say about Syria in their latest report:

A failure to intervene in Sri Lanka and inaction over crimes against humanity in Syria – one of Russia’s main customers for arms – left the UN Security Council looking redundant as a guardian of global peace.

Yet had this to say about Israel:

Israel maintained its blockade of Gaza, prolonging the humanitarian crisis and continued to expand illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Israel maintained its blockade of Gaza. Would that be the Gaza where Iranian made missiles are fired daily into Israel? That Gaza where Israel allows 250 trucks a day in which to supply Gaza? That Israel which recently allowed Gaza to export clothes to Europe? That Gaza which Israel supplies with 320 brand new vehicles a month? The same Gaza which Israel supplies with power (besides the fact that Islamic Egypt has just cut off gas exports to Israel)?

Yet nice Syria, which has murdered more Syrians in 12 months than Israel has killed in 60 years, is given a cop out by AI by them blaming everybody bar the Syrians. So typical, so left-wing, so bloody biased.

It seems that the script writers for the film Bulletproof Monk were a lot closer to the truth than they imagined.

Have you noticed how after each and every Islamic outrage in the world, the left are so quick in which point out that Islam isn't to blame? That actually Islam is a religion of peace.

This week, Muslims decided to murder around 100 people in Yemen. The left say Islam is a religion of peace.

In the UK, there is a running court case of parents of a young Muslim girl who was murdered by them because she offended them. The left tell me Islam is a religion of peace.

Another court case in the UK revolves around how a bunch of Allah's finest decided to kidnap off the streets of Sheffield a lad of 14 and demanded his parent stump up £40,000 or they would chop off his head.

In Lebanon, Shia Muslim pilgrims have been kidnapped by their so called Sunni brothers.

In Iraq, another bunch of Lebanese pilgrims paid the price of following a gay death cult when some idiot decided to detonate a car bomb as they drove past.

After each and every 'Islamic' dominated outrage, the left go out of their way in which to exonerate how following the ways of pedophile warlord had any impact on the story at hand.

Which is why the left have remained silent on how a doctor who helped locate the worst terrorist the world has ever seen was jailed for 30 years by Pakistan, because he exposed how bin Laden was living right in the middle of Pakistan, defended by the Pakistani military.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel expressed its outrage Thursday over Pakistan's conviction of a doctor who helped the United States track down Osama bin Laden, cutting aid to Islamabad by $33 million — $1 million for every year of the physician's 33-year sentence for high treason.

The punitive move came on top of deep reductions the Appropriations Committee had already made to President Barack Obama's budget request for Pakistan, a reflection of the growing congressional anger over its cooperation in combatting terrorism. The overall foreign aid budget for next year had slashed more than half of the proposed assistance and threatened further reductions if Islamabad fails to open overland supply routes to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Pushing aside any diplomatic talk, Republicans and Democrats criticized Pakistan one day after the conviction of Shakil Afridi. The doctor ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence at the compound in Abbottabad where U.S. commandos found and killed the al-Qaida leader in May 2011.

Miners on strike stand in front of a burning barricade on the A-6 motorway, on the second day of a strike to protest the government's spending cuts in the mining sector, in El Montico, near Oviedo, northern Spain, May 24, 2012. Spain's economy is contracting for the second time since late 2009 and four years of stagnation and recession have pushed unemployment above 24 percent, the highest rate in the European Union. (Reuters Pictures)

A 'to rent' the building sign hangs by a mannequin outside a closed shop in Athens on May 24, 2012. European Union leaders pledge to keep debt-wracked Greece in the eurozone as officials behind the scenes nonetheless consider contingency plans in case of an exit. (Getty Images)

During a PA TV children's program a girl recites a poem that includes glorification of violence and insults to Christians and Jews.

PA TV host: "You are going to recite a poem, which also teaches us responsibility and belonging."

Girl: "... The occupier stole my land and my grandfathers' land...Where is your sword, Khaled (Arab warrior)?Where is your courage, Saladin (Muslim conqueror)?But no one answered me.Where is my weapon? I found it - a stone. I took it and threw it at the enemies of destiny. I taught the world that the Muslim in the name of Allah cannot be defeated...They challenge us with the White House, and we challenge them with the [Islamic] awakening and the Kaaba [in Mecca]. They aren't stronger than Khosrau and Caesar (rulers of Persian and Byzantine Empires).They [Christians and Jews] are inferior and smaller, more cowardly and despised. They are remnants of the [Christian] crusaders and Khaibar (i.e., Jewish village destroyed by Muslims in 629)...Oh Muslims of the world: Awaken, you have slept too long.Your fathers and your sons are being massacred, your Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is defiled and destroyed."

TALIQAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - More than 120 schoolgirls and three teachers have been poisoned in the second attack in as many months blamed on conservative radicals in the country's north, Afghan police and education officials said on Wednesday.

The attack occurred in Takhar province where police said that radicals opposed to education of women and girls had used an unidentified toxic powder to contaminate the air in classrooms. Scores of students were left unconscious.

Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), says the Taliban appear intent on closing schools ahead of a 2014 withdrawal by foreign combat troops.

"A part of their Al Farooq spring offensive operation is ... to close schools. By poisoning girls they want to create fear. They try to make families not send their children to school," NDS spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said.

Afghanistan's Ministry of Education said last week that 550 schools in 11 provinces where the Taliban have strong support had been closed down by insurgents.

Last month, 150 schoolgirls were poisoned in Takhar province after they drank contaminated water.